Pirna Couple Sentenced For Fraud

A couple from Pirna, Germany used foreign customer data for fraud, the man was sentenced to three years and two months in prison while the woman to 100 hours of community service.

Axel E., the man of the couple was arrested in July and is currently in detention for fraud. According to the prosecutor’s office, the 40-year-old Hamburg man with the help of his partner, ordered expensive products including car spare parts, mobile phones, notebooks and tablets from the internet using false names and foreign accounts. Allegedly, they committed fraud in 20 cases. All the goods were shipped to their real address in Pirna under fake names.

On the first day of the trial at the District Court in Dippoldiswalde, the 40-year-old German had already admitted everything. Since of his confession, the court only gave him a prison sentence of three years and two months at a maximum of three years and nine months. The man told court that he committed fraud when his company went bankrupt. In addition to that, he was going through a hard part of his life since he and his partner were separated for some time. Court information says that the man found shelter in alcohol and drugs. The 40-year-old thought he could get back to his partner and their common child by giving them expensive gifts. That’s why he needed the money.

According to the accused man, he was looking for ways on the internet to make money illegally. He soon discovered the dark net where he found numerous guides and fraud related information. The 40-year-old said added in his confession that he even found some platforms offering whole packages of spyware accounts. The information came from users who used the same password for all their accounts including online banking, e-mail accounts, and social networks.

“I then ordered the data from different vendors,” Alex E. said.

His partner did not know anything about the man’s deeds, the 40-year-old ordered everything from the dark net alone. With tears, the native Kyrgyz woman assured the court that she only received a few of the packages (the products the man bought with fake credentials), when Axel E. temporarily got back together with her. However, the woman knew that something was wrong since strange names were attached to her door sign. A police officer investigating the case confirmed the woman’s statement. He said during the search of the woman’s apartment, no clues were found indicating that she was involved in her partner’s actions. Despite this fact, the woman was sentenced to 100 hours of community work.

As the dark web becomes popular, online fraud cases are starting to grow in Germany. Recently, the Hannover Regional Court sentenced two men to nearly four years in prison for fraud. The duo bought credit card information from dark net marketplaces and bought railway tickets using the stolen info. They sold the carded train tickets for a cheaper price to unsuspecting customers. According to the prosecutor, the duo sold about 500 tickets and made 350,000 Euros in total.